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Abstract

During the transition period Poland achieved a rather quick rate of economic growth, exceeding 4,9%. Inflation rate decreased, even below the level observed in many EU countries. Poland has reported very high, growing unemployment rate, beyond 20% of active labour force. Growth of the unemployment, in both rural and urban areas, is the main issue to be solved. The period of economic transition brought about a considerable increase of income differentiation of the society. This differentiation applied to a greater extent to agriculture and rural population than to non-agricultural and urban population. In 1984 the Gini coefficient for all households was 0.240, in 1998 it rose to 0.312 and for farmers these numbers were, respectively : 0.362 and 0.449. - (BJ)